When every politician in Washington sounds like a robot reciting a predictable party line, Rand Paul sounds like a man who actually thinks. Sometimes he sounds sounds nutty and sometimes he makes sense, but he’s worth watching – and listening to.

Paul first caught my attention when he filibustered against drones, denounced the NSA and defended super-leaker Edward Snowden. Recently, unlike every other weasel-livered Republican, he denounced Ted Nugent, the off-his-rocker rocker, for calling President Obama a “subhuman mongrel.” Then Paul turned around and called President Clinton a “sexual predator.”

Just this week, he didn’t echo his fellow Republicans’ empty tough talk about what Obama should do to Putin and Russia. Essentially, Rand said, what Russia does in Ukraine isn’t our business, and what the hell would we do anyway? Send in troops? Plus, how do we criticize Russia for unilateral military action after we invaded Iraq?

Now Paul has joined with Attorney General Eric Holder to push back against extreme drug-sentencing laws that fill prisons with offenders who might be better dealt with somewhere else. He has even said convicted non-violent drug felons should be able to regain the right to vote.

With all this, it’s hard to see how Paul becomes the Republican presidential nominee in 2016. But it’s good to see one politician in Washington who’s not afraid to break ranks with party. And it’s refreshing to hear a politician, especially a Republican, who is thinking.

Comments

2 comments on “Thinking Head”

Rand Paul is the existential (“fundamentalist” if you like) libertarian. These people believe that “if it doesn’t affect life, liberty or property, it’s all good” so to speak. So, easy to see why he feels the way he does about people incarcerated for non-violent drug crimes. I stand with him on that one for sure. Of course, for me it’s more about the cost of incarceration more than the violations. Truth be known, that’s Paul’s belief also. And with regard to having the right to vote, these people should be treated just like someone having a misdemeanor in my considered opinion.

I got a kick out of you questioning Paul calling Obama a “sexual predator” (of course you didn’t reveal the context or meaning in him saying that) while you, yourself, are calling Republicans “weasel livered”. Guess it’s okay to do some name calling if you’re not a president or a senator. Yeah, sure it is.

Also, you’re right…Paul is breaking ranks with “the party”. Now, I remind you that “the party” (Republican) is pretty much fractured right now. A growing number of people are gravitating libertarian. That’s kind of what the Tea Party is all about if you check it. I’m a Tea Party type and I think by now you know that. We’re about adhering to the Constitution in a very strict way. We’re not interested in all the nuances involved in so many of the social issues that the left continues to use as a wedge in our society and in their “us vs. them” efforts so as to gain voters. We don’t care if you smoke marijuana. We don’t care if you have gay sex or whether or not two people of the same gender get married. Many of us see abortion as a choice we’d never, ever take ourselves but if it’s law and considered constitutional, go for it and you can sort that out with your “maker” when the time comes.

We are all about fiscal responsibility. We’re all about maintaining every single right included in the Constitution. We’re about good vs. evil. We’re about liberty. And, most of all, we’re about country.

If put that way to the masses in our wonderful country, trust me, the “progressives” (whatever that term really means escapes me) will lose.

So, yep, Rand Paul is a very good man and like you put it, he’s very “refreshing”.